…and oxygen, water, food, clothing and shelter. And coffee. Gotta have coffee. Genius doesn’t happen on decaf.
One of my favorite holidays happens this week: Valentine’s Day! Red wine, dark chocolate-dipped everything, and you don’t have a huge obligation to buy people stuff like at Christmas. At least for us ladies. Guys, well, take your chances if you like.
Maybe the Beatles were right. All we need is love. Hahahaha. Nuts. Who am I kidding? My take is that far too many fellas are spreading some UNWANTED love around these days (#metoo).
It IS kind of amazing the frequency and how widespread these shenanigans are. I’ve personally experienced it on several occasions in my life where it went FAR over the line of “just a joke.” When someone is pinning you against a wall to shove their disgusting tongue down your throat, that’s assault, a-hole. My advice to all the business owners out there: make sure you have a clear and well-defined sexual harassment policy in place with D&O insurance to pay for the lawsuit that will follow when one of your techs thinks it’s funny to “love” on a coworker. Make it crystal clear that behavior is totally, completely unacceptable.
Of course, ALL of this stupidity is just a giant, unproductive suck on profits and yet another flaming turd you have to keep an eye on as a business owner. We are being held responsible to run an adult daycare for free by our government, INCLUDING making sure no one uses OUR office, our time, our e-mail, our Internet or our workforce to harm others, whether that’s sexually harassing a coworker, sending inappropriate jokes using company e-mail, texting while driving between clients’ offices and then getting into a wreck, drinking to excess at the company Christmas party then driving home drunk, etc., etc., etc.
It is unfair for US to be forced to police THEM, or be sued, fined and penalized if we don’t; but life is best lived as it is, not how it should be. That’s why I take a ZERO tolerance line for anyone creating drama or engaging in activities that threaten, slow down, interfere or undo my personal productivity and that of my team. We have clear rules of conduct and what constitutes unacceptable behavior. You should too, and nip any violations of it EARLY and aggressively.
My in-depth dissertation at Boot Camp this year is on extreme productivity, and one of the keys to achieving it is getting rid of anyone who shows signs of unproductive, unprofessional, drama-creating behavior that is, or could start to be, a giant problem or distraction. You cannot be meek about this. The second you suspect someone is acting in a way that could undermine your personal productivity or that of your team, get rid of them.
I have a lot less tolerance for such behavior today than I did 20 years ago because I’ve figured out that procrastinating on what you know needs to be done out of a desire to ignore the problem so you don’t have to deal with it, or keeping someone around (client or employee) for fear of what they’ll say or do when you fire them, is always the wrong choice and WILL end up creating a lot more harm than if you ripped the Band-Aid off fast.
If you truly want maximum productivity, you have to have ZERO tolerance for drama, sloppiness or anything less than top performance from those around you.
Barbara Corcoran, Shark Tank investor, built one of the largest real estate firms in New York, selling it for $66 million, with ferocious focus on hiring and keeping top salespeople. Every year she automatically fired the bottom 25% of her sales team, even if they were producing. It sent a clear message to EVERYONE: Perform, or you’re gone. It also built a moat around her culture of excellence, ensuring the whiners, complainers and non-performers were weeded out.
I rarely see that level of commitment to achievement of a stated goal. How about YOU? How fiercely committed are you? How resolved to the protection of your productivity and that of your team? Yes, this is SO not in the spirit of loving others, but absolutely in line with loving yourself.
Ready to build a fortress of productivity and success in your business? Join me at the IT Sales & Marketing Boot Camp, where I’ll be sharing my insights on extreme productivity and how to create a culture of excellence. Don’t let drama and unproductive behaviors weigh you down. Get your Boot Camp ticket now at https://robinsbigseminar.com
